Read this article in:
23 November, 2005ICEM News Release No. 27/2005
The 20-million-member ICEM has declared its support for trade unionists in Thailand who protest tomorrow, 24 November, in front of the country’s Labour Ministry on Mitmitree Road, Dindaeng, Bangkok, over the misdirected use of contract and agency labour.
The protest comes at a time when Thai Prime Minister Dr Thaskin Sinawatra is visiting the ministry. ICEM, a Global Union Federation representing 389 affiliated trade unions in 122 countries, including six in Thailand, has written the Prime Minister urging his direct involvement on this workplace issue.
Discharged workers at Goodyear's Bangkok tire plant
ICEM affiliates in Thailand have been faced with serious affronts of late from multinational employers intent on replacing permanent, full-time workers with employees from agencies.
One glaring example in Thailand is at a Goodyear tyre factory. Some 18 workers in the warehouse and rubber stock area of the plant—all who worked under individual year-long contracts for as many as ten years—were sacked after joining the Goodyear union that is affiliated to ICEM member Petroleum and Chemical Federation of Thailand (PCFT).
As the ICEM raised attention and global pressure on Goodyear management to change the practice, local management reacted by disengaging itself from short-term contracts, and brought in a labour agency to do the work. The agency refused to hire any of the 18. The ICEM finds such labour policies reprehensible, and the global union federation has protested in the strongest terms possible.
“The Goodyear case is just one example in Thailand in which the issue of contract and agency labour is detrimental to the livelihoods of workers,” said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. “We witness Goodyear and other employers say over and over how they want a loyal and proud workforce with a stake in the company. How is this possible when workers are not employed by the company?”
In the ICEM letter to Prime Minister Thaskin Sinawatra, Higgs cites a number of current labour disputes in Thailand, the issue of contract and agency labour is central in nearly all of them. He urges the Thai leader to give the matter serious attention and “to consider the harm such labour practices bring to the overall social development in Thailand.”
“I write this prior to a group of trade unionists—many of whom are members of trade unions affiliated to the ICEM—bringing this issue forward in a rally outside the Ministry of Labour,” writes Higgs, “and I implore you to hear their voice as it calls forth the ill-effects brought to workers, their families, entire communities when permanent jobs are replaced by contractors and agencies.”
Brussels-based ICEM is leading a global campaign on the issue of contract and agency labour. The federation is calling for proper controls on such labour practices in order to avoid displacement of direct employees. The ICEM is also calling on employers, governments and inter-governmental agencies to adopt simple and precise language on the use of contract workers and agency labour, stating that trade union representatives be consulted and dialogue occurs prior to when contracts for such labour practices go into effect.
Read the ICEM letter to the Thai Prime minister here.